Activities during the past two days.

This week I used more activities than I usually do:

Would you Rather Debates on Monday/Tuesday and Taboo A'la Emily on Thursday.

The Would You Rather debates were really fun! Students got into pairs and each had to use Ethos, Pathos, and Logos arguing for either Eating a stick of butter or Eating out of a dumpster.

They had SO much FUN. Once they understood the activity (I think I may give my future classes a brief sheet at the beginning of class for those visual learners...I just hate wasting a ton of paper for something they could understand by developing critical listening skills.) they really got into it
Lil Wayne is on Jimmy Kimmel--- It makes me think of Cara!

Anyway,
Thursday we played a delivery awareness game: Taboo! Ya know, basic rules you can't tell the words in the taboo area.

Three rounds:
(1) Taboo as normal
(2)Round 1 + No verbal fillers
(3) Round 2+ No Gestures

Everyone had a hard time with round 3 :)

I probably could have debriefed them a bit better- in previous years I've used Taboo to even launch discussions about language and taboo words in our society (or at least class)...

I also think I will play them a bit earlier in class. I wish I would've spread the speeches out a bit more this semester. I had this really great idea to get all of the "content" in during the first half of the semester and then have them give speeches during the second half...but I'm feeling a bit rushed at the end of the semester. Granted-This is a prep semester and it's shorter, but it's still rushed. I think I can do it better.

Brand new blog about teaching!

I have decided to start a blog! Actually, this really isn't meant to be a blog where one kinda begs everyone else in the world to read it or it looks cool or stupid.

No, this is for me. (and a paper I am doing).

I am writing a paper for NCA about my transition between institutions. I am currently at Eastern Michigan University finishing up my master's degree (2nd year). However, I've been in Ypsi/Ann Arbor for like 6 years now and it's about time to go. Luckily, I was got accepted to my first choice school for Ph.D. programs: The University of Georgia!

I'm going to have no life for the next four years!

And I'm super happy about that!

So-this blog is going to be a way for me to track my evolution as a teacher.

I was to address such topics as:

How is my teaching going? (This means I am going to write about the lectures I give and activities we do in class and attempt to "assess" whether it was successful or not.)

How am I preparing to teach public speaking (I'm 90% sure..) at UGA.

What I had to adjust to in my course of moving

How my pedagogy changes

My fears

My surprises

My successes

My failures.


ect, ect, ect.

This is a public blog, but it will likely include reminders and messages to myself.

So stay tuned, self. You are about to blog and stuff.
You need to do this frequently, or this will be a stupid tool for you.
Carry on.